If you are a hair stylist, owning a hair salon is not completely different than keeping your own chair filled with clients. But there are differences, including a need for systems, an understanding of scalability, a new and different set of responsibilities, and the ability to maintain your focus on the big picture.

Put Systems in Place

It's OK if you've been running your one-stylist operation with a cellphone and a notebook, but owning a salon means accepting that you are going to need technology and systems to be successful. According to beautybusinesssuccess.com, 60% of salons are started by hair stylists. Technology such as a point-of-sale system with an integrated clock can help you simplify and organize time-consuming tasks. Written protocol that include details such as how incoming phone calls are answered, job and shift descriptions including side work, and a business and marketing plan will greatly ease your transition while dramatically increasing your odds of success.

Delegate

You can't be everywhere and you can't do everything. Successful hair salon owners quickly learn the importance of recruiting, training, empowering and trusting employees. When you are developing your business plan, be honest with yourself and make a list of the things you aren't very good at. As you are adding staff, keep your eyes open for skill sets that complement yours. If you aren't good at getting favorable pricing from your vendors, add an interview question that addresses this and you'll probably find a stylist who enjoys this task, is willing to do it and will take responsibility for it for a lower chair lease, better product pricing or better shifts. Each decision you make will now affect more than just you, but decisions that maintain or increase your success as you add more chairs is the secret sauce to growing quickly.

Your Responsibilities Will Change

As a stylist, your workload was probably focused on finding new clients and keeping the clients you had. In order to build a successful salon, those skills will help, but you'll want to approach things from a different perspective. For example, developing a profile for the perfect customer will now need to include your entire staff and may include customers you didn't traditionally work with. In addition, you might be good at selling care products to your clients, but can you transfer that skill to your staff and see similar results from each of them. Most of the decisions you'll make as an owner will need you to combine the best interests of your staff with the best interests of your salon.

Plan for the Future

Sometimes, you will see a problem developing and you will want to step in and protect your salon investment. But, allowing your staff to find solutions will ensure that you have the time you need to monitor and adjust the big-picture decisions that are yours alone to make. If a customer has a concern or complaint, allow your staff to find a solution without your intervention. Using the systems you have in place, your business plan and subjective information from your staff and customers, you can and should focus at least a third of your time on securing the future success of your salon, including reviewing past marketing efforts to plan future campaigns and implementing staff programs for new hair treatments or styles.

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About the Author

Scott Hoffman has been writing professionally for more than eight years. He has an MBA and a Bachelor's Degree in IT Management. He is the author of "The 10 Absolute Laws of Sales, Marketing and Customer Service" and "Hard Core Marketing For Your Small Business."